Book Review: Directory of Lepidoptera Conservation Projects, by T. R. New (for IUCN/SSC Lepidoptera Specialist Group)

1 Pages·1991·0.57 MB·

by  Emmel, T C

68 BOOK REVIEW TROPICAL LEPIDOPTERA
TROPICAL LEPIDOPTERA, 2(1): 68
BOOK REVIEW
DIRECTORY OF LEPIDOPTERA CONSERVATION PROJECTS,
by T. R. New (for IUCN/SSC Lepidoptera Specialist Group).
1990. La Trove University, Bundoora, Viet. 3083, Australia. 80 pp, soft cover (21 x 29.6cm). ISBN 0-85816-738-7. Price: $ 5.00 US
(A$ 5 or £ 3), including postage; checks payable to T. R. New at above address).
Lepidopterists concerned about conservation of butterfly and not represented in the present printing should certainly be
moth species and their habitats may take heart: you are not a lone summarized for the next printing, and if the reader is engaged in
voice in the wilderness! Early in 1990, T. R. New prepared a such work, he or she ought to make a note now to see that a full
flyer requesting information on these subjects from lepidopterist description is submitted to T. R. New during 1991. Dr. New has
workers and conservationists all over the world, mailing out some done an admirable job of preparing these study summaries and is
700 copies. In addition, he submitted notices to various newslet- to be commended for his work in making this information
ters and journals of many societies. available to a worldwide audience of lepidopterists and tropical
The responses to this initial attempt by Dr. New to gather as well as temperate conservationists and ecologists.
knowledge of the kinds of work in pregress on Lepidoptera
conservation are compiled in this directory, published in Decem- THOMAS C. EMMEL
ber 1990. It is intended to update and enlarge this publication at Division of Lepidoptera Research
intervals as more information becomes available. The present Department of Zoology
publication, however, already stands as an impressive and highly University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
useful document. Each page is devoted to a summary of an
individual project, and includes the title of the project, its status
(current or length of time it has been underway), a contact person
for more information, background paragraph or more (sometimes
up to several pages) describing the study, a brief section summa-
rizing the funding sources for the project, and a summary of data
dissemination (unpublished reports and addresses to write for
these documents, published papers and their full citations, etc.).
As one might expect from the author's location at La Trove
University, there is excellent coverage of Australia, including
some exceptionally interesting projects little known to other
workers to date. Consider, for example, the one being carried out
by E. S. Nielsen and E. D. Edwards on The identification, biology
and conservation status of Australian Castniid moths. About 40
species of Castniidae are known from Australia, of which about
25 are described and 2 of these have not been seen for 40 years!
Castniids are an ancient lepidopteran group that are believed to
have inhabited Gondwanaland before its break-up by the begin-
ning of the Cenozoic Era, around 63-60 million years ago.
Today, they inhabit grasslands and sedgelands in Australia, plant
communities which are poorly studied and more poorly con-
served. These communities are particularly devastated in
Australia by agricultural destruction. In the New World tropics,
by contrast, these moths occur primarily in tropical rain forest
areas! There are also a number of fascinating studies on
butterflies and other moth groups which are summarized for
various areas of Europe and North America, even including
Bermuda. Hence this book is an indispensible starting point for
learning what is going on today in the world of invertebrate
conservation and how such studies are helping to save remaining
areas of wilderness.
Anyone interested in Lepidoptera conservation and ecology
should order a copy of this immediately for their professional
library as well as general reading interest. Likewise, any study